Origami Candle Holder

Last year, around the same time, while I was digging the internet to find some interesting Diwali craftwork for children, I discovered different origami models serving as candle holders. Here, are a few origami models that I tried. Each origami candle holder turned out beautiful and just perfect for holding candles for any occasion.

Origami Candle Holders: Model 01 and 02

Origami Candle Holders: Model 03

Out of all the above models, Model 02 is quite easy to make. And, this is what we are going to learn to make in this post.

This Diwali, learn to make a candle holder. An easy model to try and even an origami beginner who isn't aware of complicated folds can try making this one.

Try it out with your kids this Diwali week and involve your children in the festivities and fun. 

This origami candle holder is a single sheet model and the steps to fold it are very simple. Also, it takes less than 5 minutes to make it. So, go ahead and make loads of them this Diwali season. You can fold them back and reuse it in the next season...so that's budget friendly and economic reuse of paper too. 

Materials required: Square Origami paper or square colored papers. The size of the paper to be used depends on the size of the lights you are going to use. For this tutorial, a white square paper of size 6"x 6" was used.

Here's the procedure showing every step.

Step 01:

Start by making creases along both the diagonals as shown in the picture below.

Step 01: Make creases along both the diagonals.

Step 02: Fold down all the four corners to meet at the center. Now, this is what is called an Origami Blintz base.

Step 02: Fold down all the four corners to meet at the centre

Step 03: Turn over the model.

Step 03: Turn over the model

Step 04: Now, fold the four corners again to meet at the center. So, now we have applied a double blintz to the model.

Step 04: Fold down the corners to meet at the center

Step 05: Now, fold the tip of the flap, upwards to touch the outer edge of the square shape as shown in the picture below. Repeat for all the remaining sides.

Step 05: Fold the tips to touch the outer edges of the square

Step 06: Next, turn over the model and fold all the edges to meet at the center one by one. Crease well. Then open the folds and you will observe the creases as you see in the picture below. Do not skip this step.

Step 06: Apply the creases

Step 07: In this step, open the flaps and let it touch the corners as shown below. Crease well again.

Step 07: Open the flaps to touch the corners

Step 08: Now, insert your fingers below the triangular flaps at the corners and press the model downwards following the crease you made in step 06, to get a depth in the model. You will see a square base is formed at the bottom. And it is done. The candle holder is ready for use.

You can use this for holding LED lights or Diyas. 

Tips by Art Hours:

• Use colored sheets to make them colorful and decorate with sequins or glitter as desired. 
• This model will turn out well with a little thick paper and last longer too. So, a chart paper or card paper would be ideal for this model.

Origami Candle Holder

Now, mind you, this candle holder is safe for use with LED lights or diyas...after all its just made from paper and not safe to use it with wax candles.

I loved this origami model in particular because they can be safely compressed back and reused while they last, for more than one season. You just need to take them out during any festivity which requires a candle holder and reuse them; be it Diwali or Christmas or any other festival of lights, parties or occasions that call for a candle holder. So try making this origami model...decorate with a different theme this year and let your Diwali celebration be an eco-friendly one.

Here's a quick preview of the steps to making this origami candle holder on our youtube channel.

Have a Happy and Safe Diwali.

Thank you for stopping by...Do like and share this post, leave in your comments and queries. We are looking forward to constructive comments.

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Origami Twin Sailboats

How I wish I had a boat and I would go around the world sailing on it. Many of us would love to do just that...but then let's get back to reality and let's build our own boat instead...Ok...I am kidding...So what if we cannot build our own boat...let's make one with a paper and let our creativity sail with it. Here's an easy tutorial for all the kids and all the little kids within us...learn to make an origami twin sailboat. 

Origami Twin Sail Boat

This origami boat with twin sails is very easy to make and it doesn't require any complicated folding techniques. It is a fun activity for kids... so try making one this summer.

Material required: Square paper, scissors

Procedure:

Step 01:

Start with a square paper with white side on the top. Here, the material used is 15cm square origami paper.

Step 01: Start with white side on the top

Step 02:

You will need a triangular sheet to make this origami boat, hence you will need to cut off the square paper along the diagonal to get two equal triangular halves. You can make two origami boats from one square paper.

Step 02: Cut off the square paper along the diagonal 

Step 02 (contd.): You will be left with two such triangular pieces

Step 03:
Fold the paper in half along the center to get a crease.

Step 03: Fold the paper to get a crease at centre

Step 04:
Now fold the bottom tip to touch the crease point at the top

Step 04: Fold the bottom tip to touch the center point at the top

Step 05:
Now fold down both the flaps along the center one by one.

Step 05: Fold down the left flap along the center

Step 05 (contd.): Fold down the right flap along the center

Step 06:
Next, fold down the top tip halfway to touch the flaps at center.

Fold down the top tip halfway

Done:
Just turn it over and the boat with twin sails is ready for you to sail with.

Turn it over and an origami boat with twin sails is ready

Now you can decorate the boats, name them to own them and even sail away in them!

Decorate the origami boats

Just ending with a quote by one very famous Architect:
"Every year I spend one month just sailing, but I still work when I'm on the boat. You never separate work from leisure. A boat is like a magic world, like a little island." Renzo Piano

Below is a quick snapshot uploaded on our youtube channel to make the origami twin sail boats.

Thank you for visiting this blog.

Keep sailing with your creativity and learning with us!

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Origami Dahlia Flower Tutorial

Learn to fold this easy origami Dahlia flower designed by Makoto Yamaguchi. It does not involve any complicated folds and even kids can try making them. However, this is not traditional origami and involves using 8 modular units.

Category: Modular Origami partially since it involves using glue.

Level: Easy

Materials required:

Square paper - 8 nos.

Glue to stick the units together.

Procedure:

Here, we have used 6cm square paper colored on both sides. If you use an origami paper, you can start by keeping the white side on the top.

Now follow the steps closely to understand how to fold the flower.

Step 01: Note the creases made along both the diagonals.

Step 02: Fold the top and bottom tips to meet the crease at the center.

Step 03: Now, fold the top and bottom edges to meet at the centre.

Step 04: Now fold the unit backwards along the centre line.

Step 05: Now fold the entire unit into half along the center to get a pair of petals as shown below. This makes one unit of the dahlia flower. Here, it is advisable to apply a little glue between the petals, to make it easier to assemble the entire flower.

Step 06: Make 8 such units. 

Note, in the picture below, glue has been applied to some of the units only since the picture was taken in the process of applying glue to the units.

Step 07: Add some glue to the sides of both the units and keep adding one unit after the other till you are done with all 8 units.

Done: The origami Dahlia flower is ready

The final size of the flower model is @ 9cm in diameter.

You can watch a quick snapshot of the Origami Dahlia flower uploaded on youtube below.

Post your comments below if you have tried making this one.

Thank you for visiting this post.

Learn to Make Some Origami Heart Corner Bookmarks

This post contains tutorials on making origami corner bookmarks along with some historical facts on how bookmarks came into being. Read on till the end, for you will find some suggestions on how to decorate these origami bookmarks and their alternative uses too.

Origami Corner Heart Bookmarks

Recently, I read an interesting article on the origin of bookmarks and came across some interesting facts that I thought I should share here:

• The oldest existing bookmark dates from the 6th Century AD and it is made of ornamented leather lined with vellum and found in Egypt.
• The Royal Museum of Brunei showcases an ivory bookmark made in India. It is embellished with a geometrical pattern of pierced holes dating from the 16th century which has been used in Qurans.
• In 1584, Queen Elizabeth was presented with a fringed silk bookmarker by Christopher Barker who had acquired a patent as Queen's printer in 1577 which gave him a solo right to print the Bible.
• You will be amazed to learn that there is a book entirely dedicated to bookmarks by AW Coysh 'Collecting Bookmarkers published by David & Charles, London in 1974.
• In the Victorian era, the ladies taught their daughters embroidery and by this means many bookmarks were produced which were intended for use in prayer books and resulted in a favoured gift those days for friends and family members. Those home-made bookmarks were often produced from pieces of ribbon embroidered by hand or more usually to which an embroidered perforated card or small watercolor drawing was stitched.
• Bookmarks in shapes and sizes and in materials like gold, brass, bronze, copper, celluloid, leather and ivory were produced after the 1850s by specialized companies too. Many were shaped like knives or swords because at the turn of the century many pages in books were not completely separated so they would be also used as paper cutters.

Here are the tutorials, on how to make some easy bookmarks from not gold or silver but from paper, after all, that's the most easily available material nowadays.

I have tried to compile instructions for three types of origami corner bookmarks, all in the shape of hearts using different origami folding techniques. Each option will take only a few minutes to fold except for the option-2 which requires a little patience.

Tutorial 1: 
This one starts with a square sheet of paper using the waterbomb base. Once you have made the waterbomb base, its easy from there.

Origami Heart Corner Bookmark - Option 1  

Steps:

1. Start with a square sheet of paper and make diagonal folds
2. Turn over the paper and make a horizontal crease
3. Push the sides along the horizontal crease. You will get a triangular shape, that is termed as a waterbomb base.
4. Fold in the corners to meet at the centre to make a crease. Then fold both the corners upwards touching the crease made.
5. Fold in again along the crease made.
6. Fold the top tip backwards to get the shape of the heart 
7. The heart bookmark is ready for use.

Tutorial 2: 

This option is not as complicated as it looks, so don't get daunted by just seeing the pictures. Do give it a try. This one also starts with the waterbomb base. Follow the instructions closely and you can make this pretty bookmark easily.

Origami Heart Corner Bookmark - Option 2 

Steps:

1. Start with a square sheet of paper and make diagonal folds
2. Turn over the paper and make a horizontal crease.
3. Make another crease at the bottom by touching the edge to the centre.
4. Like in option-1, push along the sides to get the waterbomb base.
5. Now lift open the flap following the crease.
6. You will get a flap that needs to be folded down.
7. Fold in the flap downwards.
8. Now lift the bottom flap and fold into half and crease properly.
9. Open the flaps and squash them.
10. Now fold in the small sides into triangles as shown in the picture. 
11. Fold the bottom tips for the heart shape.
12. Now lift the entire flap upwards.
13. Once you lift it upwards you will get a clear heart shape and your bookmark is ready.

To use it, you need to put a tape on the inner side or else the folds will open up. You can also put a sticker on the top to avoid opening up the folds.

Tutorial 3: 
This is the easiest of all the three alternatives and doesn't use any complicated folds. Kids can easily give it a try. You need a rectangular sheet for this bookmark.

Origami Heart Corner Bookmark - Option 3

Steps:

1. Start with a rectangular sheet with its length double the size of the width.
2. Fold the paper into half horizontally.
3. Fold in half along the vertical axis. Crease well and unfold.
4. Now fold in left side along the central crease made in the last step.
5. Fold in the right side also.
6. Turn it over.
7. Fold down the top to about 1/3rd the top area.
8. Fold in the top edges to get a shape of the heart
9. Turn it over and the heart corner bookmark is ready.

Left inset: Apply a tape at the back of the joints
Right inset: Paste a sticker on the top of the joints

To use it, and avoid the folds opening up, you can either apply a tape behind at the joints or just paste a sticker on the top of the joints as shown in the picture above.

Suggestions and tips:
Each of the above corner bookmarks, take only a few minutes to make and can be used conveniently for bookmarking purpose. You can use colorful papers or gift wrapping papers to make them. They can be decorated further with stickers, buttons, sequins or stars as shown in the picture below.

Suggestions to decorate the bookmarks

Alternative use of the bookmarks:

These origami heart corner bookmarks are pretty indeed and can be used alternatively for decorating the corner of pictures in your scrapbooks or photo albums. It can also be used for decorating the corner of the posters or pictures.  I often use them at the corner of book covers to prevent the corners from getting damaged.

Alternative use of Corner bookmarks:
For protecting the picture corners
in photo albums or scrapbook

Alternative use of Corner bookmarks:
For decorating posters or pictures

I hope you will try making at least one of these pretty heart bookmarks. Do give it a try. These bookmarks are good handmade gifts for your friends especially those who are avid readers or for school children who need these bookmarks to mark the pages for later reading. Instead of folding the pages to read them later, you can use these pretty bookmarks so that you can return and find your page with ease. So make them and gift them to your friends or use them yourself. 

Happy bookmarking!

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sources referred:
http://www.miragebookmark.ch/wb_history.htm